Where Now?

Between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Business Software Alliance (BSA), and the media, you would think digital piracy has drastically degraded the quality of our lives. Reports often show lost revenue amounts in the billions and pirates are literally killing the Internet and our economy, according to the press. But is this really the case? Piracy is essentially a new form of forgery, a digital take on one of the oldest and most prominent crimes in the history of our civilization. Forgery can be found in history as early as 670 BC, where counterfeiters in Lydia first created casts of originally minted coins, later filling the casts with metal and producing a replica counterfeit coin.

Romans adored Greek design and Roman artists produced thousands of forgeries based on original Greek art. Forgery was so prolific in this era that Roman and Greek art are now almost indistinguishable; even art scholars find it hard to tell them apart. Despite this abundant piracy and forgery, our society flourished. You could even say that piracy has had a positive effect on our society.

The currency used today is practically impossible to forge. The technology has evolved to a point where counterfeiting is no longer viable. If no one had tried to copy coins in 670 BC, would we have invented the watermark? It is because of people like software pirates that we no longer use notes made from hand printed paper.

The truth is that piracy is a natural...